Forget Cliffs Notes; Condense Everything Into Txt
from the 2b?-Nt2b?-??? dept
There have been plenty of stories about how text messaging can be a way to boost a student's interest in reading, and lots of other stories about text messaging as a study aid for exams. It appears that one service is trying to combine the two ideas, creating greatly condensed versions of classic novels into a single SMS text message. This goes beyond Cliffs Notes. In fact, it's sort of like if you created a Cliffs Notes of a Cliffs Notes version of a story, and then reduced it to txt speak. For example, the entire Romeo & Juliet, for your mobile studying pleasure: "FeudTween 2hses- Montague&Capulet. RomeoMfalls_<3w/_JulietC@mary Secretly Bt R kils J's Coz &&is banishd. J fakes Death. As Part of Plan2b-w/R Bt_leter Bt It Nvr Reachs Him. Evry1confuzd-bothLuvrs kil Emselves." Okay, perhaps they're overstating the... um... educational value of these messages.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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I'm with you guys...
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Re: I'm with you guys...
This took 5 times as long to read as the english equivalent and they managed to save like 9 keystrokes. Bad form.
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Re: I'm with you guys...
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Re: We are missing the point.
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Re: We are missing the point.
I don't understand your argument at all, Mike. Are you frustrated because you have trouble reading it? There's a reason that Shakespeare is still considered one of the top English authors in history - everything he wrote was meaningful and original.
I hope you aren't suggesting that we should be reading The Wheel of Time in schools instead of Shakespeare?
Sure, kids will definitely enjoy reading them more, and then the concept of stories having depth and meaning that aren't on the surface will die and we'll all be collectively a little stupider.
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Re: We are missing the point.
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Re: We are missing the point.
That is supposed to be a joke right? PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tell me you are kidding, and that you promise not to ever say anything quite to ignorant, or stupid ever again.
Then repent for voting for W., twice – and then I will see if I can scrape together some respect for you.
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